KNOM Radio Missionhttp://www.knom.org/wp
96.1 FM | 780 AM | Yours for Western AlaskaTue, 03 Mar 2015 03:52:54 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1From Marble City to a Gold Rush Town.http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/05/10/from-marble-city-to-a-gold-rush-town/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/05/10/from-marble-city-to-a-gold-rush-town/#commentsFri, 10 May 2013 21:09:29 +0000http://www.knom.org/blog/wp/?p=3445When my friend Jason traveled from Knoxville to Nome the other week, he seemed to bring a few suitcases full of that warm Southeastern sunshine with him. The evening he arrived was the first of about a week of snow melting, come-out-and-play kind of weather. And what does one do after spending an Alaskan winter indoors? Well, you make the most of the new playground that has been defrosted.

Maybe it was simply the excitement of having a good friend from home by my side for a few days. Maybe it was the excitement of seeing all the flora and fauna that I haven’t even thought about since winter began. Maybe it was the realization that my time in Nome is beginning to come to a close. Whatever the contributing factors may have been, I think I lived more of Alaska in those couple of days than I have in the entirety of my stay here.

I sometimes get nervous about playing the part of tour guide. After months of living the day-to-day in Nome, I have forgotten how exciting this place is from an outside perspective. As much as I don’t like to admit it, I take so much of the novelty and beauty of Nome for granted by just looking at it from my bedroom window. As silly as it may sound, I get so comfortable with my work and home routine that I forget we are living in the aptly named Last Frontier.

Luckily my friend Jason can be described as “adventure ready.” In his short stay, we went snowshoeing, explored an abandoned dredge, tracked down the largest herd of muskox I had ever seen, all while introducing him to the ins and outs of Nome daily life as well as that of the KNOM community house. In some respects, it is the latter that I enjoy showing off the most. I won’t paint a picture that our humble home is always brimming with energy, harmony, and laughter – but when our paths do lead towards those things, it is something else to experience. Dance parties, family dinners, movies, and just time spent standing in the kitchen talking – we have gotten comments from all of our visitors about the quality of our family time and our ability to easily open our hearts to hospitality.

Knoxville, in a sense, is my spiritual home; where I will return when my time as a KNOM Volunteer is over. Having someone from there, who was part of my life before I set off on this adventure, and who simultaneously fills the role of being an individual who will be part of my life when all is said and done here, put me in the kind of mindset I really needed. It reminded me a lot of why I wanted this to be my next stepping stone in life; why I wanted so badly to be a part of KNOM’s mission. As I look back on my time here, I am, of course, so grateful for the time I have gotten to spend with my fellow Nomeites, but when it came to opening my eyes to view the wonders that reside around me, I really have to thank all of those who have come to visit us during our time in Nome and all of you who are visiting us through the content of this blog.

Thank you for sharing this adventure with us. You help make it even more worthwhile.

Taking a look outside of my bedroom window today, I was struck by two thoughts. Firstly, that at one point, I could see just a couple of rooftops followed by a beautiful green and red carpet of tundra before my eyes reached the stoic White Alice Towers atop Anvil Mountain. Now it takes a moment for me to adjust to the sight of blankets of snow on top of homes and on the land to find the towers still standing guard over the city. The thought that immediately followed after staring at the snow covered pathway that I once hiked up was that, my goodness, I’ve been here half a year now. While that may sound like a fairly small amount of time to those who have found themselves living here long after they originally intended to move on, it feels like a big deal to me seeing as how I am now halfway through the KNOM Volunteer year. Granted, there is always the option to stick around for more than a year, I feel like I’ve reached a big milestone in my time here.

I have to really think hard to remember a time when I could walk to the Post Office without slipping on a smooth patch of ice, or having to dodge the giant ice scraping machines that maintain the roadways. Though some part of me knows that when I arrived, there were seagulls in the air, spongey tundra on which to pick berries, and miles of trail to explore with just a water bottle, some snacks, and a light jacket. For now however, life means snow, ice, and more snow. It’s not a bad thing at all, we volunteers have had our fair share of winter wonderland moments, but I must admit that I’ll be a pretty happy guy when I feel my feet bounce on the green tundra again.

Until that time however, I’ve been looking back on photos from my first week in Nome. The blog post below was written after I went on a hike with KNOM Volunteers Matt and Rebekah. My, my how green everything looks in photos!

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August 5th, 2012

Overlooking Nome like some alien colony who never took any lessons in subtlety, the White Alice telecommunication settlement of wartimes passed had been the premise of many of my google searches before reaching Nome. I don’t know why exactly but I have always had a fascination with both: A. Space-esque futuristic things and B. Abandoned buildings. Short of finding a defunct planetarium, the White Alice site is paradise for someone like me. While most FUDS (Formerly Used Defense Sites) such as the White Alice in Nome are being completely dismantled, this particular site has been chosen for preservation by city officials due to public demand. While the Nome site is nothing like what it apparently used to be, I think it is fantastic that at the very least the ominous towers on the horizon will be a sight to see for years to come.

The view not far from outside the KNOM House.

It is thanks to my fellow KNOM-ers that I got a chance to visit this awesome place today. We drove just a few miles out of town to see where folks live who wish to apparently escape the crowd of Nome if you will. How the population even just a few miles outside of the city manages to get supplies in the winter is something I don’t quite understand, but hey, more power to them. Perhaps the chance to get to look at the rolling hills over the Bering Sea is reason enough to live away from town. I know I certainly felt a calling to this particular area.

The fog covering the distant comm towers gave everything an almost Prypiat feeling to it. Every once and a while you would here the sound of metal scraping against itself as a worker on the top of the mountain was dismantling part of the White Alice framework out of eyesight. Aside from that, the hike was eerily quiet. Short of playing a few hours of Skyrim, I don’t think I’ve ever had a hiking experience quite like this before.

Never before have I been in such a fog.

Bones and a blanket. You tell me.

Bone. I’m presuming from a dragon.

This seems normal and not out of place at all.

The ‘Anvil’.

Apparently there is a good view from the rocks…just not today.

Arriving at the White Alice Site.

Bekah and Matt acting as my tour guides.

One of the towers in the process of asbestos removal.

This lone fellow with the military stopped to talk with us a bit about the site.

Sepia toned for your pleasure.

On our way back down the mountain we ran across these muskox.

All in all it was a great, surreal kind of day. I can’t wait to get back up there again. Until then White Alice will have her eye on me and mine on her.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2013/01/25/fudsicles/feed/0Outsiders in Nome.http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2012/12/04/outsiders-in-nome/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2012/12/04/outsiders-in-nome/#commentsTue, 04 Dec 2012 17:00:33 +0000http://www.knom.org/blog/wp/?p=2364It was a strange feeling being in the shoes of the person who acts as a tour guide of Nome. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that former volunteer, Matt, was walking me down the streets of Nome showing me the Subway, post office, and Nome’s unofficial mascot, Velvet Eyes the pet reindeer. However, when some friends from my days in AmeriCorps NCCC came to visit last week, I found myself in the position of certified “Nomeite” over “small town newbie”.

See? Look how lost Eva and I are. I’m a terrible tour guide.

Luckily however, I don’t think my friends Andrea and Nicole saw through the facade that I actually know where I’m going in this town. You’d think that I’d know where I was going seeing as how this is a small town and there’s plenty of time to explore. As my mother says however, “that boy couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag”. It’s true. I’ve been known to avoid carrying homemade lunches for this very reason.

We can talk about my lunchtime habits during some other blog post though. All in all I feel like I did a good job of showing my friends around. Not only was it great getting the chance to introduce my friends to the voyage I’ve embarked on here in Nome, visiting places like Anvil Mountain, the White Alice Site, and the icy shoreline was also a much needed reminded for myself of how much adventure awaits just outside of the Volunteer House.

The best part of having visitors in Nome is surprising them with facts about day-to-day life here in Town. Some of my favorites to name a few include:

“Here’s the post office. It’s also the Chiropractor’s.”

“What kind of restaurant is that? Well it serves sushi, pizza, Korean, Barbeque, Japanese, and burgers.”

I am looking forward to more Volunteer House guests as my time here progresses. Until then, I’m going to studying up on how to get from all the point A’s to point B’s in this town before more company arrives.